POST-RELIGIOUS CRITIQUE OF RELIGION AND DEMOCRACY
Jürgen Habermas’s Concept of ‘Religion as Critique’
Keywords:
Democracy, Conceptual-Scape, Deliberative Democracy, Religion, Post-ReligiousAbstract
Discussions on religion’s place in democracy in the backdrop of dominant secularist ideals either register an inconclusive gist or they are transposed to what is often believed to be more open and transparent ‘weak comparative schemes,’ connected with liberal or communitarian perspectives. But, when the question of the possible interactive space between religion and democracy is integrated to the theoretical projects aimed at the critique of modernity, sometimes, it assumes a strong/deep hermeneutic claim that can situate a mutually constructive critique between religion and democracy. Critical philosopher and prominent second generation Frankfurt School1 theorist Jürgen Habermas’s concept of ‘religion as critique’ is such a deep interpretative engagement which tries to attach and contrast the meaningful realm of religion/religious discourses with the conceptual imagination of ‘critical modernity.’
References
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